
Welcome back!
Here’s your must-read news this morning:
Iran war market fears fizzle
Anthropic CEO’s anti-Trump memo
James Talarico's insanely woke tweets
I’ve got all the most important stories for you, so let’s dive in.
— Josh
Markets Roundup

🏦 ECONOMY
⭐ Editor’s Pick: Why U.S.-Iran War Won’t Stop Kevin Warsh from Cutting Rates (CNBC)
China’s leaders set the economy’s growth target to below 5% for the first time since 1991. (NYT)
U.S. private sector added 63,000 jobs in February 2026, beating expectations. (INV)
U.S. services sector surged to ISM PMI of 56.1 in February 2026, the fastest expansion since July 2022. (BBG)

📈 HOT STOCK PICKS
⭐ Editor’s Pick: Top Value Investor—Who Nailed 2026's Market Rotation—Names His 3 Favorite Stocks (BI)
The Motley Fool recommended three high-risk, high-reward AI-focused growth stocks for 2026. (MF)
Insider Monkey ranked the 10 best affordable energy stocks to buy this week. (IM)
Zacks spotlighted the best cheap stocks to buy under $10 for March. (ZIR)

🏢 INDUSTRY
⭐ Editor’s Pick: Somebody Stole 378,000 Cans of Tucker Carlson’s Nicotine Pouches (TMZ)
New emails reveal Jeffrey Epstein cultivated a closer relationship with LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman than previously admitted. (BBG)
McDonald’s CEO’s tiny bite of the new Big Arch went viral, triggering a roast war after Burger King’s president fired back with a huge bite of a Whopper. (NBC)
Ivana Trump's opulent Manhattan townhouse sold after a massive price cut. (FBN)
Morgan Stanley is laying off approximately 2,500 employees across all divisions. (WSJ)

🛢️ ENERGY & COMMODITIES
⭐ Editor’s Pick: The Dark Horse That Could Deliver the World's First Fusion Reactor (OP)
Iran's Revolutionary Guards claim they struck a U.S. oil tanker in the northern Gulf. (RTS)
Average U.S. retail diesel prices surpassed $4 a gallon for the first time in nearly two years. (INV)
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum met with Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodríguez in Caracas to discuss a rare earth minerals partnership. (AP)
Newsom's cap-and-trade allowance—a "climate tax hike"—will raise gas prices, shutter refineries, export jobs, and increase foreign oil imports. (WSJ)

🌕 CRYPTO
⭐ Editor’s Pick: Why Peter Thiel Walked Away from Ether Treasury Bet (CT)
Crypto infrastructure firm Zero Hash applied to the OCC for a national trust bank charter. (TB)
The SEC submitted guidance to the White House outlining how securities laws could be applied to crypto. (BKL)
Ether, Solana, and XRP surged amid a broad crypto rally, with Bitcoin breaking $72,000. (CD)
Tech Roundup

🧠 AI
⭐ Editor’s Pick: How Palantir Helps 20 U.S. Troops do the Work of 2,000 in Iran War (TMS)
OpenAI reached $25 billion in annualized revenue by end of February 2026. (TI)
Grammarly launched “Expert Review,” an AI tool simulating feedback from famous writers who are living and dead. (WIR)
Google is rolling out Canvas in AI mode to all U.S. users, enabling drafting documents, coding, and building interactive tools directly in Search. (VER)

🤖 ROBOTS
⭐ Editor’s Pick: Robots Just Discovered the Perfect Place to Build Human Bases on Mars (TDG)
MSC Cruises will welcome passengers with humanoid robots and robotic dogs on select ships. (MIR)
Scientists developed a method to translate music into synchronized light and motion using robots. (RAN)
Xiaomi's humanoid robots have begun an "internship" at the EV plant, autonomously performing tasks to help build vehicles. (CD)

💰 VENTURE CAPITAL
⭐ Editor’s Pick: Andreessen Horowitz Gears Up to Raise Massive New Crypto Fund (FOR)
Silverflow, a cloud-native card payment processing service with a single API to card networks, raised a $40 million Series B led by Picus Capital. (TEU)
Unleash, a platform for managing risks in AI-accelerated software development, raised $35 million in Series B funding led by One Peak. (SA)
Data management startup Validio raised $30 million in Series A funding led by Plural. (AX)
Freedom Roundup

🏛️ POLICY & CULTURE
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